A genealogy blog to encourage people with Pakistani ancestry to have fun researching their family trees.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Are you a Mughal?

As I was browsing the internet, I came across an article that was published back in April in the Telegraph, about a trust being opened to bring back the remains of the last Mughal Emperor and for his descendants to be traced.

Dean Nelson writes:

'Calls for Emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar's body to be returned to India and to be buried along with those of his royal ancestors have steadily grown since 2007's 150th anniversary of the Indian mutiny – when "sepoys" in British army regiments massacred their officers.

The rebellion was eventually put down with great brutality in a series of bloody battles and Bahadur Shah Zafar was sent into exile in Rangoon, Burma, where he died.

Although he has been described as the "Last Mughal", there have been numerous claims from alleged descendants that Zafar's lineage continues to this day. Now a powerful trust, including influential Muslim academics, businessmen and one of India's leading Urdu poets have joined forces to establish how many Mughals remain, and seek the return of the last emperor.

Professor Aslam Pervez, an historian of Zafar's reign and a founding member of the Mughal Trust, last night told The Daily Telegraph its main aim was not simply to reunite the remaining Mughal royals, but to bring back the last Mughal to Delhi.

"There is a move that we should bring back his last remains from Rangoon and make a grave for him here in Delhi, at Mehrauli, where his father and grandfather are buried.

"There are so many people who claim to be descended. The Mughals were scattered, many ran away from Delhi, to Hyderabad, after the mutiny and no-one knows who went where," he said.

Many are believed to have fled to Calcutta, where 70 descendants have been traced by the trust, and Aurangabad where a further 200 are believed to live. Others are believed to be living in Pakistan and Burma.'

I think it's a great idea but I'm unsure about the reasons of wanting to do this. Is it for historical purposes or just to find out who his descendants are so we can help them out? The article doesn't mention how the findings will be published so I'm not sure whether the public will be able to see this famous family tree. I imagine it's gonna be a difficult task of tracing descendants, perhaps they will be using new technology such as DNA.

Now I'm not claiming to be a desecendant here but my Dad is always telling us we are Meer Mughals so how does that fit in with this? I don't know but it's all very interesting.

What do you think about this? Do you have rumours of Mughal ancestry in your family?

5 comments:

I am a Mughal! Ive searched for a website for the Mughal trust but cannot find any information. Please email me if you find anything, I know this was posted a while ago but just incase :) KamranKxmsr@hotmail.co.uk

I am not a Mughal and not even an Indian. But I want to know what the Mughals did for India? Before their rule India was rich and famous and during their rule it became one of the poorest countries so much so that even a single Englishman could defeat the 'mighty mughal' armies. It is better the Last Mughal be left buried in Burma (in any case Burma was part of the British Empire)